DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7525#0021
The Prehistoric Tombs of Knossos.
411
appears, must have come from a flatter country. Whether their different ante-
cedents ultimately imply in one or the other case an immigration from over sea is
a question impossible to answer with our present data. It is certain, as will be
shown in detail below, that all three types of interment were practised at Zafer
Papoura contemporaneously, and that the culture presented by the contents of
graves of the different kinds is of an uniform and purely Minoan stamp.
Unfortunately the character of the soil has left little material for craniological
observations. The bones were mostly in a very decayed state, and it was often
with the greatest difficulty that sufficient data could be made out even to deter-
mine the sex of the skeletons.0. Even in cases where the bones had been placed
in clay sarcophagi these had been generally so broken and choked by the falling
of the rotten houskouras rock that very little remained in a sufficient state of
preservation for comparative purposes.b
§ 2. The Graves of Zafer Papoura and their contents.
No. 1.—This grave was of abnormal form, and seems to have been a double
shaft-grave. It is situated on a steep bank, and much of the original deposit
above it had probably disappeared. There are two compartments, divided by a
dry walling. The bottom of that to the west was 60 centimetres higher than the
other, but owing to the slope it lay at about the same distance, 1*65 meters below
the surface. This compartment (A in plan, fig. 13) was found completely empty.
B, however, had its original covering of rough slabs, sloping up west towards the
companion grave. Beneath these lay the much-decayed remains of an extended
skeleton, with its head to the south. By the head were the two vases a (see
fig. 118, la) and b, and near the left forearm and hand two bronze knives and a
stone hone.
la. Plain ewer : height 25 centimetres. (See fig. 118, la.)
8 Some of the legs for instance may have been more bent than is shown in the rough indications
of skeletons in the plans of tombs given below. These indications, it should be observed, are only-
intended to have a diagrammatic value, the skeletons being in almost all cases reduced to too pul-
verised a condition to admit of any exact delineation.
b Mr. 0. H. Hawes, who has been carrying out extensive craniological observations in Crete on
behalf of the British Association, has kindly consented to examine the skulls from this cemetery and
from the Royal Tomb.
411
appears, must have come from a flatter country. Whether their different ante-
cedents ultimately imply in one or the other case an immigration from over sea is
a question impossible to answer with our present data. It is certain, as will be
shown in detail below, that all three types of interment were practised at Zafer
Papoura contemporaneously, and that the culture presented by the contents of
graves of the different kinds is of an uniform and purely Minoan stamp.
Unfortunately the character of the soil has left little material for craniological
observations. The bones were mostly in a very decayed state, and it was often
with the greatest difficulty that sufficient data could be made out even to deter-
mine the sex of the skeletons.0. Even in cases where the bones had been placed
in clay sarcophagi these had been generally so broken and choked by the falling
of the rotten houskouras rock that very little remained in a sufficient state of
preservation for comparative purposes.b
§ 2. The Graves of Zafer Papoura and their contents.
No. 1.—This grave was of abnormal form, and seems to have been a double
shaft-grave. It is situated on a steep bank, and much of the original deposit
above it had probably disappeared. There are two compartments, divided by a
dry walling. The bottom of that to the west was 60 centimetres higher than the
other, but owing to the slope it lay at about the same distance, 1*65 meters below
the surface. This compartment (A in plan, fig. 13) was found completely empty.
B, however, had its original covering of rough slabs, sloping up west towards the
companion grave. Beneath these lay the much-decayed remains of an extended
skeleton, with its head to the south. By the head were the two vases a (see
fig. 118, la) and b, and near the left forearm and hand two bronze knives and a
stone hone.
la. Plain ewer : height 25 centimetres. (See fig. 118, la.)
8 Some of the legs for instance may have been more bent than is shown in the rough indications
of skeletons in the plans of tombs given below. These indications, it should be observed, are only-
intended to have a diagrammatic value, the skeletons being in almost all cases reduced to too pul-
verised a condition to admit of any exact delineation.
b Mr. 0. H. Hawes, who has been carrying out extensive craniological observations in Crete on
behalf of the British Association, has kindly consented to examine the skulls from this cemetery and
from the Royal Tomb.